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Archive for December 2014

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Hard to believe it's new year's eve isn't it? It's funny how time seems to fly (unless it's winter which always seems to drag on) and suddenly you are staring a new year in the face. I've got some crafty goals that I hope to meet in 2015 - I think I'll be brave and post them here soon because I think it will help me be accountable!

Wednesday's are usually the day where I debut a card that I made using the new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches, but we're on a holiday hiatus so I'm free to indulge myself in other crafty challenges today. This card is for the Mojo sketch and a recent color challenge at Splitcoast Stampers.

The SCS color challenge was actually to use Hello Honey, but I used Crushed Curry because I had some DSP in that color and I really wanted to use it on my card. This is also tall and skinny week at Mojo so my card is a slim 3 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches. I kinda like that size!

I hope that you all enjoy a safe new year's celebration, whatever it is you are doing. Thanks to everyone who stopped by here and left an encouraging comment over the past year. I really appreciate your feedback and cherish all the friends that I've made during my crafting journey! And here's to a super crafty 2015!

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Sunday, December 28, 2014

I have the somewhat unusual luxury of finding myself with lots of extra time to get crafty lately. My design team work is on vacation for the holidays so my schedule is free to do whatever I want! What a strange feeling that is. Today I decided to play along with the inspiration photo at Just Us Girls and to combine it with the latest retro sketch.

I really loved the gray, pink and white colors of the JUGS inspiration photo plus you can see I was heavily influenced by the circles. I randomly stamped some circles then added a button and a stacked die-cut sentiment. You may notice that I sneaked in a little black on the die cut sentiment. That is a little trick I learned from my friend Karren. It really makes the die cut stand out and since this card is really just about the pink and gray, it really helped to make the sentiment get noticed.

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Saturday, December 27, 2014

Now that Christmas is behind me, I'm free to think about getting inky again! As you know, I prefer to start my cards with inspiration from some of my favorite challenges and a lot of them are on hiatus for the holidays. But a few are open and I found that at CASology the cue card "light" gave me an excuse to use this cool stencil.

This card was so simple to make and was just what I needed after a long day at work. (Returning to work for one day after a mid-week holiday is SO hard)! There was really nothing to it but sponging the sun's rays and adding a sentiment. I lucked out that I had a sentiment that was appropriate for a light-filled sunny card!

Well, that's it for me. I've got a surprise 80th birthday party for my uncle to go to on Sunday, but hopefully I can get some more crafty time in around that! Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps: Bright Days (Avery Elle)

Paper: Neenah Solar White

Ink: Daffodil Delight (SU); Onyx Black (Versamark)

Accessories: Shine stencil (Memory Box)

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Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Even though this weeks palette from colourQ could easily inspire a Christmas card (it was in fact inspired by this tree on an advent calendar) I'm all Christmas-ed out and went in an entirely different direction. Last week's Make it Monday technique was a cool way to use die cuts on a card by "camouflaging" them. The look is pretty cool and I wanted to try it out.

Cool huh? I layered the die cut four times because I really wanted it to show up. Plus the sponged colors are pretty dark and I was afraid that if I didn't have enough dimension, you wouldn't be able to see the cool look of the popped up sentiment. I also went over the die cut with my Wink of Stella pen to give it some glitz and it looks really pretty in real life!

This is a busy time of year so this colourQ challenge will stay open for two weeks to give you extra time to play along. The design team have created some beautiful projects to be sure to check them out!

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Monday, December 22, 2014

The Shades of White challenge at As You See It had me intrigued. Then, as luck would have it, I found a sketch at Match the Sketch that seemed perfect for a white on white card and then I saw the winter wonderland challenge at Cupcake Inspirations which was perfect for a snowflake so I decided to combine them all.

I started with a white card base and layered some vellum over it. I have some white, sparkly twine in my stash so I used that to wrap around the vellum and create the contrast between the two layers. Then I added a snowflake that I die cut from Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper. All this looks very bland here but in real life it's quite sparkly and wonderful!

Thanks for stopping by and if you are going to leave a comment (and I hope that you do) remember that you can ignore the stupid prove you're not a robot check box!

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Sunday, December 21, 2014

It was nice to see some non-Christmas colors this week at the Color Throwdown, so I grabbed a new stamp set and got to work creating a little floral collage following the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch.

I have a cousin whose birthday is Christmas day and since I'm going to her house this Christmas I wanted to give her a card that had no colors of the season. I think this fits the bill!

Speaking of Christmas I'm just about to start wrapping gifts while listening to some holiday tunes on TV. I want to get everything done today so that I can enjoy the next few days and relax! I hope you are all caught up too!

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Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Are you ready for the final Freshly Made Sketches challenge of 2014? I know I am! It's such a busy time of year and it is good to take a break from all this creative hard work now and again. But don't fret about finding time to play along with this challenge because the linky will stay open until January 5th. So you've got plenty of time to celebrate holidays and the new year plus squeeze in a card or two for Narelle's sketch. So let's get to it.

By now you all know that Narelle rocks the layers like nobody's business but sadly I do not. I started out with the intention of keeping my layers somewhat clean which is why one of them is a "layer" of embossing paste. I have a hard enough time seeing it in the picture (and I know where it is) so I hope that you can see it too. Then I decided I need a bit more texture so I added another layer of burlap ribbon. Then I got to thinking about the circle and thought some feathers would look nice.

I really like these feathers but they are a bit bigger than what I had envisioned in my head. But that's my "circle" and I'm sticking to it!

The always amazing Freshly Made Sketches design team have got some great interpretations of this sketch for you to see so be sure to check them out. And remember you've got lots of time to play along because we're leaving the challenge open until January 5th. I sure hope to see you in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by and if you leave a comment remember, you can just ignore the stupid "prove you're not a robot" check box!

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Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Well, I guess I had one more Christmas card in me! I thought I was done and then I got this new stamp set in the mail (a last minute Black Friday purchase) and decided that the new palette (inspired by this vintage ornament) at colourQ would be perfect for it.

So I stamped Santa, colored him up and assembled my card using the latest Deconstructed Sketch. It's been a long time since I've used Poppy Parade and I've got to say I haven't missed it! It's a little too tomato-y for me. I like to eat tomatoes, I just don't want them on my cards!

And just pretend that those green sequins are sort of the color of Always Artichoke. I really wanted to use some enamel dots and wouldn't it figure that I've got a million of them but none were even remotely close to that color. So I had to settle for some sequins (which aren't the right color either) but I'm pretending that they are!

Well that's it for me. As usual, the colourQ ladies have cooked up a fine assortment of cards for you to see so be sure to check them out. I hope to see you in the gallery!

Thanks so much for stopping by and remember you can ignore the stupid "prove your not a robot" code!

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Monday, December 15, 2014

The other day I checked out the color challenge at Fab Friday and immediately thought there was no way I'd be able to get all those colors onto one card. Fast forward a few days and I found a (somewhat) new challenge called ShowCASe Your Style that gave me an idea for incorporating all these colors in one card!

I thought the striped layers made a good argument for using the Bermuda Bay and Coastal Cabana. And those cool colors were a nice contrast to the warm tones of the poinsettia. I just love how they look together. The pairing of these colors is a little unexpected, but I really think the stripes draw your eye right in to the focal point. Lucky for me this wee sentiment fit exactly in the space to the left of the poinsettia.

I think this wraps up my 2014 Christmas card making season. I sure hope so, especially since it's the middle of the month and I have to get all these cards signed and mailed out!

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Saturday, December 13, 2014

Before I get to my card, I just wanted to mention something about the CAPTCHA code that is now showing up on blogs all over the place. Even those blogs that have word verification turned off now have the "prove your not a robot" thing showing up when trying to leave a comment. Blogger help forums are indicating that it is a bug (and hopefully will be fixed soon), but in the meantime the good news is that you can ignore the CAPTCHA code entirely and your comment will still post. So if you see the box asking you to type in those slightly blurry numbers just pretend it's not there and leave your comment. It will post as it normally did. Weird, but true.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

I feel like I've making nothing but Christmas cards in my mad dash to make sure that I've got enough to mail out so I needed to take a little break and make something completely different. I recently got a new stamp set and I've been waiting for the perfect opportunity to ink it up. The colors from Pals Paper Arts and the layout from CAS(E) This Sketch gave me that opportunity.

I adore this butterfly stamp set. It's got these wonderful layers that make the butterflies have such depth. The stamp set itself is laid out a little weird on the acetate sheet it comes with. Sometimes the images that are supposed to go together are not next to each other on the acetate so there's a bit of hunting and pecking to find the correct layers. But the effort is worth the end result because these butterflies are gorgeous!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps: Painted Butterflies (Altenew)

Paper: White (Spectrum Noir); Bermuda Bay (SU)

Ink: Soft Sky, Pool Party (SU); True Black (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories: Enamel dots (My Mind's Eye)

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Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Half way through the work week and it's time for a new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. This week our hostess is the supremely talented Karren Johnson. Karren is an incredible crafter who always encourages me to buy new stuff for my crafting stash, but more importantly she forgave me for taking liberties with her sketch this week!

As you can see I turned the sketch on its side and substituted the rectangular layer for a tag. This is actually the second card I made for this challenge, the first faithfully following the sketch. The problem with it was that the colors I chose were horrible! So I went back to the drawing board (which really means that I turned off the light in my stamp room and watched football instead) and when I went back in there the next day decided to follow the silver, gold and ?? challenge at Merry Monday. And since I was feeling guilty about not following the sketch properly I showed it to Karren who liked it and then reminded me that it was fancy enough to fit the Black Tie challenge at The Paper Players. Isn't she the coolest? She lives half a world away from me, but I can tell you that meeting her is definitely on my bucket list!

I don't have to tell you that there's a lot of inspiration from the design team at Freshly Made Sketches this week so be sure to hop on over there and see it all in one place. I hope that you can play along with us!

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

At first glance I was intimidated by these colors but then I saw the challenge at Tag You're It and was impressed by the way Tracey used such bold colors on her inspiration tag. I thought I would do the same thing only using the colourQ colors and snowflakes instead of bells. I really love how this turned out, especially with the falling snow in the background.

My friends at colourQ have got some great cards for you this week, so be sure to check them out. There's lots to see, and not all of it Christmas themed!

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Monday, December 8, 2014

I had a grand plan to combine the color challenge at Just Add Ink with the sketch challenge at Cardabilities. But by the time I got through with my card I had lost sight of the sketch and I couldn't, in good conscience, claim that I was following along with it.

I had several pro-types of this card going at once and it actually took me a while before I settled on this version (which, I suppose, is why I abandoned the sketch at some point). I had a bunch of different flowers that I considered using and laid them all out in a dry run before I settled on these flowers. The centers are made with a Viva Decor Pearl Pen, which takes some time to dry, so I actually made this Saturday night but waited until Sunday to assemble all the pieces.

Well that's it for me. I'm typing this while watching Sunday Night Football and I'm just about ready to settle down with a big bowl of popcorn and the last half of the game! It's too hard to stamp and watch TV at the same time!

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I'm just a girl who loves paper and ink. I've been stamping for many years since a friend invited me to her house to make my own Christmas cards. By day I'm a number cruncher at a bank so I love being able to finish the day with some paper, images and ink.

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The Fine Print

This is my personal blog and I am solely responsible for the content. I'm happy to share my creations with you for your own personal use and inspiration. You are free to CASE my work, but I would appreciate acknowledgement and a link back here if you do. Please do not represent anything you find here as your own, use my designs as contest submissions, or submit my designs to any publication. Thank you!